KiCad 7.0.0 Error while exporting footprints to new library from Altium imported pcb

[2norderEDO]

Hello fellow KiCad users,

I’m in the process of migrating from Altium to KiCad. I have a decently big Altium database library, and as part of the migration process I have to migrate the footprints to KiCad. I found a way I could migrate all the footprints without having to redraw them, but I think I also stumbled upon something that could potentially be a bug.

My idea was as following:

1. Import a Altium .pcb file using the KiCad standalone PCB editor
2. File → Export → Footprints to new library (or existing, it doesn’t matter)

Problem: I get this error message for every footprint:

I want to ask the community first before I submit an issue in Gitlab.I have a reproducible pcb file that was already imported from Altium. Only step 2 is needed to reproduce the error.

Issue_Import_Altium_Library_Attempt.kicad_pcb (371.4 KB)

I think the problem is that the footprint names contain a long windows directory path, and the exporter tries to create the footprints including also this directory. From my understanding, the export should only use the last part of this directory string to rename the footprints.

Thanks for your time,
Enrique

[bidrohini]

You may get some help from the following links if you already have not checked them:

Importing Altium PcbLib files

This has been covered in various other posts, but I’ve tried to patch together all the bits of info into one clear recipe. (If nothing else, it will help me remember three months from now when I need to do this again, but I hope this is helpful to the general community.) To import a .PcbLib from Altium: Download and run a KiCAD “nightly” build. As of this writing, it’s KiCAD v6.99. Create or open a project. Click on PCB Editor or Footprint Editor (both work). Click on Preferences => Manage…

Importing a Design from KiCad into Altium Designer | Altium Designer 23 User...

[paulvdh]

I am seeing the same issue.
When I try to PCB Editor / File / Export / Footprints to new Library, then I get:

The small message window pops up a lot of times, while the bigger message pops up a lot less.

After that I opened the file in a text editor, and removed most of the text from the long footprint names:

 _Users_Enriq_Google Drive_I+D_Altium Files_Libraries_DB_Library_Footprints/SMT.PcbLib_

That seems to get rid of the big error messages, but not the small ones. I do not know why those pop up, it may be another issue.

It does look like bugs to me, but I’m not entirely sure what is going on here.

---

I also flipped one of the resistors to the front side, moved the texts apart a bit and noticed the texts on the User.Eco1 layer is mirrored. Is this intentional? If not, you can put it back by clicking on the “Reversed R” icon in the text properties:

The KiCad version I used was:

Application: KiCad PCB Editor x86_64 on x86_64

Version: 7.0.0-da2b9df05c~163~ubuntu20.04.1, release build

Libraries:
	wxWidgets 3.2.1
	FreeType 2.10.1
	HarfBuzz 6.0.0
	FontConfig 2.13.1
	libcurl/7.68.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1f zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.7 libidn2/2.2.0 libpsl/0.21.0 (+libidn2/2.2.0) libssh/0.9.3/openssl/zlib nghttp2/1.40.0 librtmp/2.3

Platform: Linux Mint 20.3, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK, xfce, x11

Build Info:
	Date: Feb 21 2023 12:56:05
	wxWidgets: 3.2.1 (wchar_t,wx containers) GTK+ 3.24
	Boost: 1.71.0
	OCC: 7.5.2
	Curl: 7.87.0
	ngspice: 38
	Compiler: GCC 9.4.0 with C++ ABI 1013

Build settings:
	KICAD_SPICE=ON

[2norderEDO]

Thanks for checking.

I also had the idea to manually remove the directory, but I did not have the time to test it. It is great that you did it.

Anyways, manually editing the footprint names to remove the path from the string is not the expected behavior for the “File → Export → Footprints to new library”, so I think this qualifies as a bug.

I will file in an issue in Gitlab. Most likely is not a 7.0.0 specific issue, but I will tag it that way.

Update: Opened issue: Error while exporting footprints to new library from Altium imported pcb (#14173) · Issues · KiCad / KiCad Source Code / kicad · GitLab